School closings are happening rapidly across the country, due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Like most teachers, I had to decide in a very short time, how I could support my students learning at home. We use worksheets very sparingly as the majority of our learning takes place manipulating objects (counting blocks, building letters using special hands-on kits, matching objects with their letter sounds) and using our whole body to walk along huge letters on the floor. I prepared some learn-at-home packets the best I could and then got to work planning and preparing for LIVE Circle Time sessions. You can view my first attempts here: facebook.com/kinderhausinmichigan/. I let the parents know the night before our first session what our core concepts are so they could create signs and place them in the room where they would be viewing my live Circle Time from. Just as when we do Circle Time in the classroom, we reviewed our core concepts through movement. For example, our recent theme from Experience Preschool with Mother Goose Time has been On the Pond. Our core concepts involve a daily topic that relates to the weekly and monthly themes, the letters, N, W, and Z, numbers 13 and 14, the color black and the shape is star. We receive cube cards in our curriculum kit each month that can easily be placed in our large cube. I roll the cube and it may direct us to "flap your arms 14 times as if you have dragonfly wings." Or, we may "crawl to something that begins with W." Noting who was on "live" with me, I encouraged them to do the same and then have their adult type in what they did. I also used their names one at a time in a song. Distance learning is unusual for preschoolers, however seeing their teacher, hearing familiar things that we were working on at school and knowing their friends are tuning in also, can provide some much-needed familiarity when life has come to a screeching halt. These short sessions are helping to develop their social-emotional development, which is one of 7 learning domains outlined in the Experience Preschool with Mother Goose Time curriculum. And in a time like this, a child's emotional well-being must be secure for any real learning to take place. Here, a student is using his There Was a Little Turtle song kit we made in class to sing along with me.
At the time of this post, we are scheduled to go back to school after Spring Break, which would be April 6. If school closures are extended, the curriculum company has since devised a way for us to send home learning supplies with our students. Let's hope it doesn't get to that. I miss my students terribly and truly enjoy going to work every day. In the meantime, I will continue to pray for each student by name. I hope you have enjoyed a brief look into what "distance learning" has looked like for my class at St. Mary School.
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AuthorSheila Anderson has over 25 years experience in the Early Childhood Field and still loves going to "school" everyday. Archives
January 2022
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